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Coast-to-coast for $50? Not anymore, but a few Delta customers got a deal Thursday morning

By Nick Woltman, Pioneer Press

Updated:
12/26/2013 02:43:00 PM MST

Self service check-in kiosks at the new Delta airlines terminal at JFK in New York. (Mary Altaffer/Associated Press)

Christmas came a day late for a few holiday travelers lucky enough to be searching for a Delta Air Lines flight through the company's website mid-morning on Thursday.

A tech glitch temporarily caused the site to offer customers steeply discounted fares. An economy-class round-trip ticket from Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport to the Twin Cities on was going for $25.05. Round-trip flights across the country for $50 were reported on Twitter. Boston-to-Hawaii was reported for $68.

“For a portion of the morning today, some prices on delta.com and other booking channels were incorrectly displayed, resulting in lower than usual fares for customers,” Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter said Thursday. “The situation has been resolved and the correct prices are being displayed. Delta will honor any fares purchased at the incorrect price.”

The Cincinnati-MSP flight was newly listed later Thursday at $403.80.

Atlanta-based Delta is the dominant carrier serving the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

George Hobica, founder of AirFareWatchdog.com, said his staff began noticing the incorrect prices around 9 a.m. central time. They began disappearing three hours later. AirFareWatchdog.com is a website that monitors 4,000 domestic and international flight routes to alert consumers of low-priced fares.

Hobica said the errors were systemwide, affecting both first-class and business class and economy class.

In September, United Airlines allowed passengers who bought tickets that were accidentally offered for free because of faulty reservations data to use them for travel. Delta didn't say how many tickets were sold today at the incorrect price.